Abraham à Sancta Clara is probably the most remarkable preacher in the history of the German language; he was certainly one of the most popular satiric writers in the late seventeenth century. In May 1680, at the height of his activity as imperial court chaplain for the Hapsburg emperor Leopold I, one of his sermons was heard by thousands who gathered at the Plague Pillar in the center of Vienna to celebrate their survival of the epidemic the year before. By all accounts he possessed a charismatic and lively oratorical style that captivated simple folk and aristocrats alike. Friedrich Schiller called Abraham a splendid eccentric and original and used his exuberant, sometimes bizarre style as the model for the sermon of the Capuchin friar in his drama Wallensteins Lager (1800; translated as The Camp of Wallenstein , 1830). Schiller's contemporary Jean Paul (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) recognized Abraham's entertaining wit and burlesque...